Light jail sentence in Utash beating produces heated exchange

Latrez Cummings, from left, appears in Wayne County Circuit Court with his attorney, Robert Slameka, and Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey.
Jameson Cook--The Macomb Daily

A judge’s decision Thursday to place a Steven Utash beating defendant on probation drew a vehement protest from an assistant prosecutor and produced a heated exchange between her and the judge.

Judge James Callahan said Thursday he was going to place Latrez Cummings, 19, on three years probation for the April 2 mob beating of Utash on a Detroit street, pointing out Cummings grew up without the discipline of a father. He had a single mother.

“That’s all you have needed in your life, a father, someone to discipline you, someone to beat the hell out of you when you made a mistake,” Callahan told Cummings. “Without the guidance of a father, being 19 years of age I can understand how some of these problems existed in the past.”

That prompted a spirited retort from Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey: “That is no excuse, judge, that is setting a low bar. There are plenty of young black males who live in the city of Detroit who are raised by single mothers who do not, I repeat, do not engage in criminal activity. There are plenty of young black males who did not have a father who live in the city of Detroit who do not come into court and lie to a judge. There are plenty of young black males who live in the city of Detroit who do not behave the way this man behaved. The fact that he did not have a father, the fact that he is a young black male does not give him the right to engage in criminal activity.”

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Callahan said he was ”rudely interrupted” by Lindsey and noted he did not inject race into the matter.

“Did I ever use the term ‘black’?” the judge said.

“You don’t have to use that term, judge,” Lindsey replied. “We can see. We all have eyes. He is a young, black male in the city of Detroit. It does not give him an excuse to go out and commit crimes nor is it a reason to show him leniency, because he doesn’t have a father.”

Callahan then ordered Cummings to spend the first six months of probation in the Wayne County Jail.

“There’s no excuse for this behavior, and you will be treated with a great deal of aggression, anger if you will, if you commit some other crime” while on probation, Callahan said.

It was unclear whether Callahan was going to order the six months in jail prior to Lindsey’s objections.

If he didn’t order jail time, the sentence would have been under the sentencing guideline range of five months to 23 months in jail or prison.

Callahan also placed Cummings on status under the Homes Youthful Trainee Act that will allow the conviction of assault with intent to do great bodily harm to be erased from his record if he successfully completes probation.

HYTA prison terms, however, are typically served in a special prison in the Michigan thumb area. That issue was not discussed in open court.

Callahan said Cummings would be eligible for work-release if he gets a job.

Cummings already was on HYTA for about a month for the same charge in a separate case when he became involved in the Utash beating. That HYTA was not revoked over Lindsey’s objection.

“How many times do we have to give him a chance before somebody gets seriously hurt?” she said.

Lindsey said there was “nothing favorable” for Cummings in his presentence report.

The judge said Cummings lied to him at a prior hearing by indicating he was enrolled in a Ferndale school, when records show he had not been registered since December 2013. Cummings told the judge today he was released from the program due to a computer problem and tried to re-enroll but was denied.

His mother told a probation officer that he couldn’t work because of an injured back, but Lindsey noted the injury “didn’t stop him” from beating Utash.

The report said that Cummings joined the Cripps gang in 2008 and was a “foot soldier.” Slameka said that information was old and irrelevant.

Cummings, along with three other adults arrested for the beating, previously pleaded guilty to the assault charged, reduced from attempted murder, in a plea deal, for the beating of Utash on Morang after Utash stopped to check on a 10-year-old boy he struck with a pickup truck.

Cummings admitted to “stomping” Utash twice and hitting him “a couple of times,” Lindsey said, based on the presentence report.

Cummings’ attorney, Robert Slameka, was admonished by Callahan when he referred to Cummings’ strikes of Utash as “getting a couple of licks in.”

“That’s a poor choice of terms,” the judge said.

Utash was released from a brain rehabilitation center in May after spending time in a hospital, where he was in an induced coma.

Cummings’ sentence continued a pattern of defendants in the Utash case receiving relatively light sentences. The only Utash beating suspect who received significant incarceration is Wonzey Saffold, 30, who had a lengthy prior criminal record and will serve more than six years in prison.

Callahan is being asked by Lindsey to reconsider his one year jail term for James D. Davis, 24, because it was under the sentencing guideline range of 19 to 38 months. That hearing is set for July 25.

Also sentenced was Bruce Wimbush, 18, who received probation under HYTA, which is designed for defendants aged 17-20.

Juvenile offender Courtney Robinson receive an indefinite time in a juvenile residential center.

All the defendants are from Detroit and were among an estimated 15 people who beat Utash. There have been no other arrests.

About the Author

My beat is the courts of Macomb County and general assignment.
Read more of Jameson Cook's court coverage on his blog http://courthousedish.blogspot.com/ Reach the author at jamie.cook@macombdaily.com
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